F&S STRATEGIC PLAN 2019-2023

Inspiration. Innovation. Leadership. Perseverance. Agility.

F&S is the capable steward of the physical home of a pre-eminent public research university with a land-grant heritage.

We serve a city unto itself: the iconic structures and grounds that give the campus its distinctive identity, technology-rich facilities that foster scholarly innovation, and the living environments that are home to 51,196 students. Equally valuable—though often unseen—are the innovative research contributions F&S staff regularly make for our students and academic partners.

Individuals from a variety of disciplines use F&S resources, expertise, and facilities. Campus buildings, streets, and green spaces are the living laboratories for students and faculty projects. F&S has collaborated on more than 55 student and academic projects since fall 2018, and more requests arrive each day.

This plan serves as the F&S roadmap for the next five years. It is the product of collaboration across F&S’ six divisions and approximately 1,100 employees. We have set a challenging course for the future.

A Message from the Executive Director

We are pleased to share our Facilities & Services (F&S) Strategic Plan for 2019–2023 with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign community. Since I joined the U of I in July 2018, I have had the pleasure of working with managers and frontline staff from across our six divisions to develop the 10 strategic themes and numerous objectives that will guide us through the next five years.

First, we made sure to align our plan with the four pillars of the university’s strategic plan, The Next 150: scholarship, transformative learning, societal impact, and stewardship of resources. We must continue to keep the needs of our campus customers and stakeholders at the forefront of everything we do. This begins by fostering an environment where employees can reach their greatest potential to deliver the highest level of customer service.

That’s why “Invest in Our People” is our first strategic theme. We will strive to provide the kind of staff
development and respectful, diverse, and safe workplace environment that promotes innovation
and collaboration across divisions.

Equally important, we will build accountability into our processes and procedures to ensure our employees and vendors deliver on time and on budget. Through the plan, we will adopt a continuous improvement philosophy by standardizing reporting, simplifying workflow processes, and identifying other ways we can become more efficient and effective.

Our plan lays out the ways by which we intend to meet or exceed our customers’ expectations and keep
them engaged and informed throughout a project’s timeline. We will also expand the communication channels by which customers can reach out to us to request assistance and offer feedback.

We will promote and expand the academic collaboration we have engaged in at all levels of campus
life to make it easier than ever for our campus partners to leverage the professional expertise of our
talented staff.

We will continue to lead in areas like campus accessibility and develop forward-thinking plans to
preserve our distinct architectural heritage, as well as utilize campus space efficiently.

Finally, we have prioritized environmental stewardship, energy conservation, and sustainability both
in-house and as a partner with state, federal, and community programs.

This plan sets us on a path to meet the challenges of supporting the mission of a world-class
university with a global impact. I invite the entire campus community to reference it frequently and
treat it as a living document that informs our decisions and inspires us to strive toward an exciting
and rewarding future.